There And Back Again....

 

 I've Looked at Clouds....

Yes, Dear Readers, I have been Traveling again, taking the long Journey to the Southwest to see my Family who live out there. As I mentioned last year, it is a long way, requiring three different flights, and this year they stretched over two days because the last leg "puddlehopper" out of Albuquerque had been cancelled. I had to spend the night in a hotel and take the morning flight the next day. And as you can see in the above picture I looked at clouds.... and took lots of pictures, one of my favorite things to do! I was particularly intrigued that the clouds in the above picture are forming only over the land.... not the rivers or the bays! I believe this was flying over Maryland and Chesapeake Bay, but I cannot be sure.

This is the other end of the second flight

 as we are coming in over the Sandia Crest to land in Albuquerque.

The plane approaches and flies rather close over the mountains

 and then drops precipitously into the Rio Grande Valley to land at Albuquerque.

And The following morning the "puddlehopper" prepares to take off for Silver City.

Those mountains are the Sandia Crest that we flew over on arrival.

I will try not to bore you.... 

but there were a lot of clouds over the desert too!

And beautiful sunset views from my Mother's house as well!

Up in the hills at my Dad's house the following day it poured rain...

Thunder and lightning crashing around. 

They have been having a good Monsoon this year.

It didn't rain as much in the valley....

but there were Rainbows.....

It looks fainter and smaller in the photo than it did in person.

We visited a little botanical garden near Mom's house.

The plants are mostly unfamiliar to me.

Everyone kept saying how green everything was because of the rain.

More clouds.....

Another rainbow.... a little harder to see.... but there!

And we took a field trip up into the Gila Wilderness

 which begins just north of Silver City.... 

and covers hundreds of miles of wilderness and mountains and cliffs....

To see the trees....

And the wildflowers....

 

They are a little past their best bloom... 

but beautiful nonetheless.

And rocks!

 

She didn't go far, but Mom had a short walk to see some blossoms...

And Daisy, Mom's dog, got to have a short run in the woods too!

She clearly wonders why we are not going farther.

I was glad I was not the driver... 

this is the view from the passenger seat!

This was on one of the more "civilized" roads.

The visit is never long enough.... 

seems to be done just as you are getting adjusted... 

to the time change, to the dry air... to the big sky.....

suddenly it's time to go back again...

The "puddlehopper" waiting to board...

Clouds over the desert on the way up to Albuquerque...

Flying north along the Rio Grande Valley as we leave Albuquerque...

 

Popcorn clouds flying East over Texas....

Hours later crossing the Mississippi River

 where it snakes towards the Gulf of Mexico...

And much later again,  flying through the clouds 

as we take off from Atlanta on the last leg of the trip home.

 The sun is beginning to set and it will be night when we land.

 

 Well, Dear Readers, you might wonder

 if I got anything of a mini nature done...

And I did bring a couple of little needlepoint kits with me,

 just in case I had time to stitch.

One of Janet Granger's kits, a Cat Tea Cosy, 

which I was able to start working on in the hotel.

And another of her Christmas Stocking Kits... 

which I also worked on at the hotel. 

It is stitched on 40 count silk gauze.

I did make a bit more progress on it while at my Mom's.

I apologize for the blurry photo....

 yes, it was dark out already!

It is a long trip in the Big wide World....

Not much Mini about it!

But I saw my Folks... 

Hugs and Smiles included!

And looked at clouds... from both sides....

There and back again....

It is good to be home!